How to Escape Line Break in Long Code Line?

Junyong — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:16:21 GMT

It seems SAS Macro adds a space when there is a line break as follows:

%let Sentence=The line break in this sentence
will leave a space.;

%put &Sentence;

SAS prints the following output:

1    %let Sentence=The line break in this sentence
2    will leave a space.;
3
4    %put &Sentence;
The line break in this sentence will leave a space.

Is there any way to avoid this spacing and let SAS print The line break in this sentencewill leave a space. instead? This is not a SAS example, but like % in LaTeX as follows:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

The line break in this sentence
will leave a space.

However, the line break in this sentence%
won't leave a space.

\end{document}

Thanks for your help!

Re: How to Escape Line Break in Long Code Line?

Tom — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 19:37:56 GMT

If you want to make a long macro variable but keep the source lines short here are a couple of ways.

Macro code only: Use multiple %LET statements.

%let Sentence=The line break in this sentence;
%let Sentence=&sentence.will NOT leave a space before will.;

SAS code: Use multiple string literals and CALL SYMPUTX()

data _null_;
call symputx('Sentence'
 ,'The line break in this sentence'
||'will NOT leave a space before will.'
);
run;;

Note: if you need the macro variable to contain leading and/or trailing spaces you can use the ANCIENT CALL SYMPUT() instead.

topic How to Escape Line Break in Long Code Line? in SAS Programming

How to Escape Line Break in Long Code Line?

Re: How to Escape Line Break in Long Code Line?